Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla talks during an interview with The Associated Press, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2019 in New York. The foreign minister says he believes improvements in relations with the United States are irreversible despite the Trump administration's hardening of the embargo on the island. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

Cuban foreign minister: Warming with US is irreversible

October 01, 2019 - 11:37 am

The Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Cuba's foreign minister said Tuesday that he believes improvements in relations with the United States are irreversible despite the Trump administration's hardening of the embargo on the island.

Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla told The Associated Press that while the U.S. administration has cut off most communication with Cuba and is trying to pressure the communist government by restricting the flow of oil, progress made under former U.S. President Barack Obama has not been undone.

He said relations between the two countries would never return to the way they were before December 2014, when Obama and then-Cuban President Raul Castro declared that they would reestablish diplomatic relations.

"There have been levels of communication and mutual familiarity between the peoples of both countries that are irreversible," Rodríguez said.

He said Cuba was prepared for a worsening of tensions during the presidential campaign season because the Trump administration believes that Cuban Americans in South Florida support a hard line on the island.

He called that an "erroneous political calculation."

"I believe it's proven that the majority of Cubans in Florida support the advances in the normalization of relations and the lifting of the blockade, and the younger they are, the more the support it," Rodríguez said.

He also says Cuba is finding ways to buy oil despite attempts to stop it.